I was having a craving for stuffed peppers. And ever since we’d visited my brother in law in Texas at the beginning of the summer, and I saw a recipe for stuffed poblano peppers in a magazine, I didn’t just want any old peppers. Of course, those were stuffed with chorizo (which I’ve never found a safe version of) and smothered in cheese, but I could have them stuffed with SOMETHING, couldn’t I? So I started looking at recipes, and blended the cooking method of one, with the ingredients of another, then skipped a bunch of ingredients, substituted a lot of others, and viola, something new, and delicious. Of course my family all stuck their noses up at it, so I got to eat them all! Even better.

4 poblano peppers

1 cup brown rice

2 1/2 cups homemade chicken broth

1/2 cup chopped kale

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 Tbs. minced Vidalia onion

1/2 of 6 oz. can of tomato paste

3 ears fresh corn (boiled for 5 minutes), then cut off cobs

1 15.5 oz. can of Goya black beans

1 tsp. cumin

Cook brown rice in chicken stock according to directions (I figured the chicken stock would add more flavor to the filling).

I lined a 11″ x 17″ brownie-type pan with foil (to make clean up easier), then laid out peppers. I dumped the filling on top. There was way too much filling for the peppers, so some was inside the peppers and some was between the peppers, which didn’t really matter since I’d lined the pan. Cover pan with foil.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.

I didn’t try freezing them (I’ve been eating the leftovers for 2 days, but I imagine that they’d freeze well).

Mix all ingredients together. Put down a sheet of wax paper about 12″ long (standard width). Plop the dough along one side, and roll up so that you have a tube of dough. Chill in refrigerator for about one hour. Take dough out of fridge and remove from wax paper. Cut into slices 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick (I made one sheet of thinner slices and one sheet of thicker slices). Place on insulated baking sheet, leaving about an inch between cookies. Bake in preheated 350F oven for 11-13 minutes.

I liked the thinner ones dipped in my tea, because they were crisp. The softer ones were good for just snacking on. I’m keeping in an air-tight container and so far they’ve lasted 2 days (because my kids don’t like anise!).

Put everything but the olive oil in a food processor, and pulse until it is all minced. Place in bowl, pour olive oil over it, and mix to combine. Chill for at least 4 hours before using, to blend flavors.

We like to put it on sandwiches. My favorite is just putting about a teaspoon in some Boar’s Head pastrami turkey thinly sliced deli meat, and rolling it up.

When I had to go garlic free, I could no longer have a lot of prepared foods that had been safe on my no-gluten, no-dairy, no-soy diet. One of those things was refried beans, so I learned how to make my own.